Rainy Day Fund

James&Shell

just a question for all you guys and gals,

Do any of you have a rainy day fund?

The reason that i ask is that ive just started putting loose change away and im going to open a isa and save some money each month.

But i feel guilty as the little i save for emergencys could pay of my debt early.

What do you all do?

angelavdavis

Are your debts incurring interest? If yes, I would pay off debts first as you will rarely get more interest on savings compared to the interest you are paying on debts. I paid off my credit cards early by overpaying them - snowball calculator will show you how much the overpayments will contribute to your debt free date.

Martin recommends that you have three months salary worth of savings minimum in case something happens to your job.

I save, as a minimum, £3k cash isa every year and £2k per year extra in a notice account to stop me getting to it - last time I put it in an NS&I account (locked away - last time it was 2 years). I then save anything else I can - every time I renegotiate a cheaper rate for insurance, etc this goes away. I am currently overpaying my mortgage with this as its worth my while because I won't get as much interest on it in a savings account due to tax.

Sea78

HI,

I have lots of pots for things like tax, insurance, christmas, birthdays, clothes, prescriptions, dentist, haircuts etc etc. I also have an emergency fund as I have no way of debting or getting money if desperate so hve started a fund that I'll use as a full and final offer but may well need to use as the roof has begun leaking with all this rain!

Sea xx

newleaf

Every day's a rainy day when you're in debt! I will save an emergency fund when I've paid mine off, but not before.

skintas_2

i ant got no spare money skitn till friday, friend asked if me and kids wantedto go cinema id rather pay some bills off

rayday2

James&Shell wrote: »

just a question for all you guys and gals,

Do any of you have a rainy day fund?

The reason that i ask is that ive just started putting loose change away and im going to open a isa and save some money each month.

But i feel guilty as the little i save for emergencys could pay of my debt early.

What do you all do?

You are spot on thinking like this it is foolhardy to say someone in debt does not need to have rainy day funds.

This year our MIL was taken into intensive care with hours to live we had to drive 100 miles to see her, her house was too small to stay in we had to use a hotel it was for the five of us £70 per night b&b.

Situations arise in life you can never dream of, situations you just have to fund whether your are in debt or not. OK it is good to bang down debts and not take any more on but our life is not ruled by debts and the whole point of being a DFW is making your life unruled be debts!

Now I pay £20 into an ISA every month with Yorkshire building society - you can do that online and open with £10!

Also I pay £5 into two of my childrens savings accounts repaying what I had to use for the hotels.

Any good DFW would have an emergency emergency fund not just the emergencies you can think of!

SarahNeedle1872

I know Martin says u shouldn't, but I also pay £10pcm into an ISA, plus £10pcm into a savings acc for DS. My CC debt is at 0% til Oct and I am saving towards it in the hope I can pay it all off before getting interest charges... but this can also act as my ABSOLUTE emergency fund.

As Rayday said, u never really know what could happen!

Sarah x

PS - I also have an emergency £10 in my purse, instead of my CC!

rayday2

Well when you are as far in the poop as I am you would be looking at one of those pay day loan places, and the apr's on those would be silly!

Martin does say to save for emergencies, I just choose to put mine where I can't use it easily so it genuinely does get used for emergencies!

James&Shell

Thanks for all your replies.

Its now made me realise that you do even if you are in debt need to save for a rainy day as you never know what is round the next corner.

Im going to continue with my savings tin and also sort a plan out to save something in to my isa each month just in case.